way south:FarkedOver: Well at least the US will know who not to fund now. Who am I kidding, we will still fark this whole thing up.

We farked it up by waiting to make a decision.Civil wars don't get better with time.

/According to Assad the resistance is 90% foreign Al Queda fighters./So now its someone elses civil war that just happens to be taking place in his back yard./...Or militia turning on militia as resources grow thin and objectives change.

Yeah, right, it's a real shame we decided to sit THIS one out. If only we had become involved sooner. Guess peeps can still go over and volunteer for the side they want to win.

Fusilier:way south: FarkedOver: Well at least the US will know who not to fund now. Who am I kidding, we will still fark this whole thing up.

We farked it up by waiting to make a decision.Civil wars don't get better with time.

/According to Assad the resistance is 90% foreign Al Queda fighters./So now its someone elses civil war that just happens to be taking place in his back yard./...Or militia turning on militia as resources grow thin and objectives change.

Yeah, right, it's a real shame we decided to sit THIS one out. If only we had become involved sooner. Guess peeps can still go over and volunteer for the side they want to win.

Time to turn on the SEP field. So, all the surrounding Sunni countries get to have their whack jobs AQ Jihadists go somewhere else to kill and die. I don't see them getting too worked up about this. The Persian Shia in Iran aren't shedding any tears for the poor Sunni arabs. Assad, if he cooperates on the CWs, get brownie points from the US.

This happens a lot as Rebel movements expand into a serious threat to the regieme. They had this problem in Bietnam during their war with the US. The NVA regulars felt the VietCong guerillas were too undisciplined, doctrinaire and prone to freelancing. Their solution? The Tet Offensive which a) scored a huge propaganda victory for their side, but much more importantly nearly wiped out the VC to a man as they carried out the , ultimately suicidal, attacks on American bases and forces.

This text is now purple:dumbobruni: it already was a 3-way fight; the Kurds and Islamists started fighting last year.

The Kurds are Islamists. They're fighting the Syrian Islamists for cultural reasons.

Actually the Kurds as a whole aren't Islamist, but this is not to say that Syrian Kurdish fighters aren't. You are very correct about their fight being for cultural(and political) reasons. Kurds have long been dreaming of an autonomous state of Kurdistan free from persecution as a cultural minority. Unfortunately this idea carves out chunks of Turkey and Iraq and lesser pieces of Iran and Syria.

/strangely enough, the US civil war stopped balkanization in the US before it could get started./God I wish Chicago would leave Illinois and become its own state. Get rid of the Cook County bullshiat and Downstate bullshiat all in one giant leap.

DreamyAltarBoy:This text is now purple: dumbobruni: it already was a 3-way fight; the Kurds and Islamists started fighting last year.

The Kurds are Islamists. They're fighting the Syrian Islamists for cultural reasons.

Actually the Kurds as a whole aren't Islamist, but this is not to say that Syrian Kurdish fighters aren't. You are very correct about their fight being for cultural(and political) reasons. Kurds have long been dreaming of an autonomous state of Kurdistan free from persecution as a cultural minority. Unfortunately this idea carves out chunks of Turkey and Iraq and lesser pieces of Iran and Syria.

kurds are one of the largest cultures without an autonomous state.Having their own state would solve so many problems in each of the other countries.Except for the whole balkanization problem.

Magorn:This happens a lot as Rebel movements expand into a serious threat to the regieme. They had this problem in Bietnam during their war with the US. The NVA regulars felt the VietCong guerillas were too undisciplined, doctrinaire and prone to freelancing. Their solution? The Tet Offensive which a) scored a huge propaganda victory for their side, but much more importantly nearly wiped out the VC to a man as they carried out the , ultimately suicidal, attacks on American bases and forces.

namatad:DreamyAltarBoy: This text is now purple: dumbobruni: it already was a 3-way fight; the Kurds and Islamists started fighting last year.

The Kurds are Islamists. They're fighting the Syrian Islamists for cultural reasons.

Actually the Kurds as a whole aren't Islamist, but this is not to say that Syrian Kurdish fighters aren't. You are very correct about their fight being for cultural(and political) reasons. Kurds have long been dreaming of an autonomous state of Kurdistan free from persecution as a cultural minority. Unfortunately this idea carves out chunks of Turkey and Iraq and lesser pieces of Iran and Syria.

kurds are one of the largest cultures without an autonomous state.Having their own state would solve so many problems in each of the other countries.Except for the whole balkanization problem.

No nation willingly gives up territory for the benefit of cultural minorities. Occasionaly governments abandon administration of localities when they are too much trouble(see Detroit). South Korea seems to have an interesting take on the whole local administration thing.

Fusilier:way south: FarkedOver: Well at least the US will know who not to fund now. Who am I kidding, we will still fark this whole thing up.

We farked it up by waiting to make a decision.Civil wars don't get better with time.

/According to Assad the resistance is 90% foreign Al Queda fighters./So now its someone elses civil war that just happens to be taking place in his back yard./...Or militia turning on militia as resources grow thin and objectives change.

Yeah, right, it's a real shame we decided to sit THIS one out. If only we had become involved sooner. Guess peeps can still go over and volunteer for the side they want to win.

No ones going to agree on whether to get involved or not, but it helps of you decide when the problem first presents itself (or at some point during the following years).

To wait until its a conflagration of this magnitude AND THEN decide to half step your way to a solution is just begging to get caught up in the insanity....But this is what's happening now.

Its going to mangle our reputation and still risk a military involvement.

DreamyAltarBoy:namatad: DreamyAltarBoy: This text is now purple: dumbobruni: it already was a 3-way fight; the Kurds and Islamists started fighting last year.

The Kurds are Islamists. They're fighting the Syrian Islamists for cultural reasons.

Actually the Kurds as a whole aren't Islamist, but this is not to say that Syrian Kurdish fighters aren't. You are very correct about their fight being for cultural(and political) reasons. Kurds have long been dreaming of an autonomous state of Kurdistan free from persecution as a cultural minority. Unfortunately this idea carves out chunks of Turkey and Iraq and lesser pieces of Iran and Syria.

kurds are one of the largest cultures without an autonomous state.Having their own state would solve so many problems in each of the other countries.Except for the whole balkanization problem.

No nation willingly gives up territory for the benefit of cultural minorities. Occasionaly governments abandon administration of localities when they are too much trouble(see Detroit). South Korea seems to have an interesting take on the whole local administration thing.

Except for Israel, but that was because zionist extremists had started blowing up buildings like the King David hotel, and with the UK mandate over Palestine coming to an end, they frankly didn't give a damn anymore and just wanted it to stop. Plus Israel became a nice guaranteed permanent military base for the US and UK into perpetuity so they could continue to "provide stability to the region."

namatad:This text is now purple: SquiggsIN: Pretty much every place where European nations drew the boundaries after WW2 is farked up now right?

What's our lesson in this? (one we'll never learn)

The change from empires to nations wasn't smooth?

The US got lucky. Our empire was new and consisted of islands here and there.The Europeans did a TERRIBLE job with cleaning up when they left.

Keep in mind that much of the mess in southeastern Europe and southern Russia and the middle-east isn't the result of WWII -- it's the result of WWI. The simultaneous collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire still screws up geopolitics.

scubamage:DreamyAltarBoy: namatad: DreamyAltarBoy: This text is now purple: dumbobruni: it already was a 3-way fight; the Kurds and Islamists started fighting last year.

The Kurds are Islamists. They're fighting the Syrian Islamists for cultural reasons.

Actually the Kurds as a whole aren't Islamist, but this is not to say that Syrian Kurdish fighters aren't. You are very correct about their fight being for cultural(and political) reasons. Kurds have long been dreaming of an autonomous state of Kurdistan free from persecution as a cultural minority. Unfortunately this idea carves out chunks of Turkey and Iraq and lesser pieces of Iran and Syria.

kurds are one of the largest cultures without an autonomous state.Having their own state would solve so many problems in each of the other countries.Except for the whole balkanization problem.

No nation willingly gives up territory for the benefit of cultural minorities. Occasionaly governments abandon administration of localities when they are too much trouble(see Detroit). South Korea seems to have an interesting take on the whole local administration thing.

Except for Israel, but that was because zionist extremists had started blowing up buildings like the King David hotel, and with the UK mandate over Palestine coming to an end, they frankly didn't give a damn anymore and just wanted it to stop. Plus Israel became a nice guaranteed permanent military base for the US and UK into perpetuity so they could continue to "provide stability to the region."

It could be said that they were playing create-a-state on the way out.

umad:namatad: /God I wish Chicago would leave Illinois and become its own state. Get rid of the Cook County bullshiat and Downstate bullshiat all in one giant leap.

If I am reading this correctly, you are insinuating that Chicago is the sane part of the state. This makes me lol.

I didnt say sane. I said BULLshiat.

For example: how is a law which allows casino in every county of the state, EXCEPT Cook County, anything other than illegal? If not illegal, at least immoral and balkanizing.You can gamble here, just not in chicago.

Plus, they hate us as much as we hate them. Good Bye and Good Riddance.I would expect that Chicago pays more in taxes than it gets back. Just a guess. Might be completely false.Hell, could be a net gain, which we would lose.

namatad:BigNumber12: SquiggsIN: Pretty much every place where European nations drew the boundaries after WW2 is farked up now right?

What's our lesson in this? (one we'll never learn)

Oh, I don't know. Sometimes, map-redrawing can be fun, like when you inadvertantly create a place like Bir Tawil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanizationall we do is make things worse

/strangely enough, the US civil war stopped balkanization in the US before it could get started./God I wish Chicago would leave Illinois and become its own state. Get rid of the Cook County bullshiat and Downstate bullshiat all in one giant leap.

You and me both, then maybe the lower half of the state (read everyone outside of chicago) could get something done without the corrupt inept chicago leadership sticking their noses into other counties business and voting like retards because they have a crime infested shiat hole.

namatad:umad: namatad: /God I wish Chicago would leave Illinois and become its own state. Get rid of the Cook County bullshiat and Downstate bullshiat all in one giant leap.

If I am reading this correctly, you are insinuating that Chicago is the sane part of the state. This makes me lol.

I didnt say sane. I said BULLshiat.

For example: how is a law which allows casino in every county of the state, EXCEPT Cook County, anything other than illegal? If not illegal, at least immoral and balkanizing.You can gamble here, just not in chicago.

Plus, they hate us as much as we hate them. Good Bye and Good Riddance.I would expect that Chicago pays more in taxes than it gets back. Just a guess. Might be completely false.Hell, could be a net gain, which we would lose.

I see. I figured I probably read it wrong. It would have made more sense (to me) if you had said "I wish Cook County would leave Illinois..."

namatad:umad: namatad: /God I wish Chicago would leave Illinois and become its own state. Get rid of the Cook County bullshiat and Downstate bullshiat all in one giant leap.

If I am reading this correctly, you are insinuating that Chicago is the sane part of the state. This makes me lol.

I didnt say sane. I said BULLshiat.

For example: how is a law which allows casino in every county of the state, EXCEPT Cook County, anything other than illegal? If not illegal, at least immoral and balkanizing.You can gamble here, just not in chicago.

Plus, they hate us as much as we hate them. Good Bye and Good Riddance.I would expect that Chicago pays more in taxes than it gets back. Just a guess. Might be completely false.Hell, could be a net gain, which we would lose.

I would suspect that cook county also drains the illinois budget more then any other county in illinois. Being as how our money floods north to pay for inner city schools and whatever project the corrupt ass chicago government hands out to the good old boys club, meanwhile our bridges and roads collapse and our schools consolidate with 50+ students per class.

atomicmask:I would suspect that cook county also drains the illinois budget more then any other county in illinois. Being as how our money floods north to pay for inner city schools and whatever project the corrupt ass chicago government hands out to the good old boys club, meanwhile our bridges and roads collapse and our schools consolidate with 50+ students per class.

(all dollars are the state contribution of money, not federal, nor local)Chicago has 21% of the population of Illinois.Chicago receives 14% of the illinois budget spent on primary and secondary education.Fine, lets do it by students:Illinois average $5500 per studentChicago average $4000 per student

Tell me again how unfair it is for you poor poor stupid downstaters?No seriously, I used the 2012 budget numbers and the 2012 population numbers.Can you explain how it is anything other than unfair that Chicago gets such a SMALL percentage of what it should be getting?